Talk Before Sleep - Paperback

by Elizabeth Berg (Author)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - "Unforgettable . . . Truth rings forth clearly from every page. . . . One minute you're laughing, the next you're crying. . . . You'll want to give a copy to every good woman friend you have."--The Charlotte Observer

What do you say when you know you don't have forever? Ruth has been Ann's closest friend for years--her confidante, her solace, her comic relief, her tutor in life's mysterious ways. So when Ruth becomes ill, Ann is there for her without question. After all, it is Ruth who encouraged Ann to become who she is, Ruth whose rebellious, eccentric spirit provided the perfect counterpoint to Ann's conventional, safe outlook. And so the friends go on as they always have . . . gossiping, consoling, and sharing intimate secrets--but with the knowledge that each shared evening could be their last.

Acclaimed author Elizabeth Berg has created a searing novel about the strength and salvation of women's friendships. Deeply moving and surprisingly funny, Talk Before Sleep is an intimate, uncensored portrait of love and loss, struggle and resilience.

"Tender and irreverent by turns, [Talk Before Sleep] offers mature, intelligent and buoyant spirit, like a very good friend."--Houston Post

"Entertaining, finely crafted . . . Berg tackles serious issues with grace."--San Francisco Chronicle

Front Jacket

What do women talk about when they know they don't have forever? They talk about what they have always talked about, only they go deeper and more honest: with outrageous humor they try to mitigate pain. Intimate and uncensored sharing, the kind of connection women prize, is at the heart of this deeply moving novel about the grit and power of female friends.

Ann and Ruth have always talked as only great friends can--honestly, and about everything: husbands and marriages, sex lives and children, their work, their hopes, their disappointments, and their dreams. For Ann, cautious and conventional, her closeness to the outspoken and eccentric Ruth brings about discovery and liberation, a chance to say whatever she wants, and, most important, under the insistent tutelage of Ruth, to become herself. Over the years, the women have shared recipes, quilting patterns, child care, delicate and dangerous secrets. Each rests secure in the knowledge that they will be friends forever. Then something happens that will change their lives forever, and the women begin to share something more profound than either of them might have predicted.

Written with an unerring ear for how women talk, laugh, and cry together, and with a gift for capturing the uniqueness of personality, "Talk Before Sleep is sure to find a place in readers' hearts.

Author Biography

Elizabeth Berg is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including We Are All Welcome Here, The Year of Pleasures, The Art of Mending, Say When, True to Form, Never Change, and Open House, which was an Oprah's Book Club selection in 2000. Durable Goods and Joy School were selected as ALA Best Books of the Year, and Talk Before Sleep was short-listed for the ABBY Award in 1996. The winner of the 1997 New England Booksellers Award for her body of work, Berg is also the author of a nonfiction work, Escaping into the Open: The Art of Writing True. She lives in Chicago.

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